Jimmy Clairet won the final TCR Europe race of the season in Valencia, as Franco Girolami became a two-time champion in the series after finishing the reverse-grid race in sixth.
The reverse-grid pole went to Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Davidovski, who led the field through the first corner before sliding wide on cold tyres at Turn 2, opening the door for Clairet to take the lead.
Further back, Clairet’s team-mate Nicola Baldan in the field’s leading Audi was in fourth and on the second lap the Italian dived inside Jenson Brickley’s CUPRA to claim third into the first corner.
Baldan then made short work of getting past Davidovski for second around the outside of Turn 13, with Brickley trying to follow on the outside line at Turn 14 but locking up and going wide.
The Brit thus lost a handful of places to drop to sixth, as Clairet started to extent his advantage at the front of the field.
Brickley’s race fell apart a few laps later, as he was forced into retirement with an issue after only four laps. Baldan also retired a lap later, his Audi coming to a halt on the exit of Turn 2, ending any potential charge for the final win of the season.
His stricken RS3 meant there was a brief safety car period on lap seven, before the action resumed at mid-distance on the eighth lap.
In the title race, Girolami was running in seventh at this point, knowing that all he needed was a top six finish to secure the title, irrespective of what his rivals did. Comte, meanwhile, needed to win the race to have any hope, but the Frenchman was only running in fifth at the mid-point and seemingly lacking the pace to go any further forward.
The biggest mover at the restart was GOAT Racing’s Santiago Concepción, who ran tenth behind the safety car but immediately pounced on team-mate Felipe Fernández to secure ninth.
Two laps later, Girolami improved his prospects of a second title by passing ALM Motorsport’s Levente Losonczy for sixth, with the bunching up behind him allowing Concepción to gain a further two places past Losonczy and Nicolas Taylor to end the lap in seventh.
Girolami continued his progress a lap later by passing Ignacio Montenegro for fifth, just before Giovanni Scamardi went off into the gravel and caused a safety car period for the second race in succession.
After a lap, racing resumed and Concepción also passed Montenegro, taking sixth, before finally passing Girolami for fifth when the Argentine champion-elect chose to allow him through rather than put up a more risky fight.
Victory went to Clairet, his second in the category, ahead of ALM’s Ruben Volt, who had passed Davidovski for the place on the third lap. Davidovski may lost places early on, but ultimately prevailed to complete the podium.
Championship runner-up Comte took fourth, ahead of Concepción and Girolami, with Taylor and MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson in seventh and eighth respectively.
The top ten was completed by GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernández and PMA Motorsport’s Sandro Pelatti.
Girolami ultimately won the title with 395 points, ahead of Comte (382) and Montenegro (342).
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 16 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 16 | 29:05.581 | 1:41.326 | 2 | |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 0.742 | 1:41.416 | 5 | |
| 3 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 16 | 2.249 | 1:42.083 | 1 | |
| 4 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 16 | 4.551 | 1:42.201 | 6 | |
| 5 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 4.951 | 1:41.874 | 7 | |
| 6 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 16 | 4.972 | 1:42.115 | 9 | |
| 7 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 8.041 | 1:42.453 | 14 | |
| 8 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 16 | 13.141 | 1:42.990 | 8 | |
| 9 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 13.511 | 1:42.097 | 12 | |
| 10 | 54 |  |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 14.612 | 1:43.474 | 16 | |
| 11 | 59 | |
Daniel TEIXEIRA | JT59 Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 17.160 | 1:43.671 | 18 | |
| 12 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 20.086 | 1:41.707 | 13 | |
| 13 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 16 | 22.940 | 1:42.264 | 11 | |
| 14 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 16 | 31.244 | 1:43.871 | 17 | |
| 15 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 14 | + 2 LAPS | 1:41.845 | 10 | |
| R | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:42.862 | 15 | |
| R | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | DNF | 1:41.493 | 4 | |
| R | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:43.897 | 3 |